Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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major reference

In the
Tractatus, sentences are treated as “pictures” of states of affairs. As in Frege’s system, the basic elements consist of referring expressions, or “logically proper” names, which pick out the simplest parts of states of affairs. The simplest propositions, called “elementary” or “atomic,” are complexes whose structure or logical...

criticism of creation myths and doctrines

...tradition of Western philosophy from Immanuel Kant’s
Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1st ed. 1781; Eng. trans.,
Critique of Pure Reason, 1929) to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922). Skepticism of this kind about the nature of the cosmic order and especially about the ultimate origin of the universe places limitations on the...

description of ideal language

...that is precise, free of ambiguity, and clear in structure, on the model of symbolic logic, as contrasted with ordinary language, which is vague, misleading, and sometimes contradictory. In the
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922), the Viennese-born philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein viewed the role of language as providing a “picture of reality.” Truth was seen as making...

discussed in biography

Near the end of the war, while he was on leave in Salzburg, Austria, Wittgenstein finally finished the book that was later published as
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. In the preface he announced that he considered himself to have found “on all essential points” the solution to the problems of philosophy. “The truth of the thoughts that are here...

influence on

Ayer

...At Oxford, Ayer studied
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739) by the radical empiricist David Hume (1711–76) and discovered the recently published
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951). Instinctively irreverential, he used both works to attack the conventionally religious, socially conservative...

metalogic

Certain aspects of metalogic have been instrumental in the development of the approach to philosophy commonly associated with the label of logical positivism. In his
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922; originally published under another title, 1921), Ludwig Wittgenstein, a seminal thinker in the philosophy of language, presented an exposition of logical truths as sentences...

philosophy

analytic philosophy

...in which he acknowledged a debt to Wittgenstein, who had studied with Russell before World War I. Wittgenstein’s own version of logical atomism, presented in his difficult work
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922), was tremendously influential in the subsequent development of analytic philosophy.

logical atomism

...with him ever since. Wittgenstein thus did not become aware of Russell’s version of logical atomism until after the war. Wittgenstein’s polished and very sophisticated version appeared in the
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which he wrote during the war but did not publish until 1922.

logical positivism

...in natural science. In 1922 Hans Hahn, one of the leaders of the Vienna Circle, laid before his students at the University of Vienna the
Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung (1921;
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922) of Ludwig Wittgenstein. This work introduced a new general theory of meaning, derived in part from the logical inquiries of Giuseppe Peano, Gottlob Frege,...

...proved much more powerful. Wittgenstein had visited England before World War I and had spent some time at the University of Cambridge; while there he discussed logic with Russell. The
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus expresses and generalizes the conclusions that Wittgenstein had reached. In 1929 he returned to Cambridge, and he remained there for most of the next 17 years....

...active participants. The most important addition to the circle was Rudolf Carnap, who joined the group in 1926. One of the early activities was the study and critical discussion of the
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) of Ludwig Wittgenstein, a seminal thinker in analytical and linguistic philosophy. It seemed at the time that the views of Carnap and Wittgenstein, though...

Russell

...the next big step in philosophy and to defer to him on questions of logic. However, Wittgenstein’s own work, eventually published in 1921 as
Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung (
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922), undermined the entire approach to logic that had inspired Russell’s great contributions to the philosophy of mathematics. It persuaded Russell that there...

views on meaning

Wittgenstein’s antipathy to metaphysical philosophy was in part based on self-criticism; in his early work the
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, published in 1922, he had himself tried to give a general account of meaning. At least one doctrine of that enigmatic book survived in his later thought: the distinction between saying and showing. Wittgenstein in the
Tractatus sought to...

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